A Girl Like Her
by XXforget-x-me-x-notXX
Summary: The last semester of senior year, Kyle and Wendy get pretty close. Maybe too close, since she's dating his best friend.
1. Chapter 1

A/N- Hey, guys. I got this suggestion from HoAcrazylover and I wanted to try it. I've got a few plans for this story, I think it'll be fun to write. I hope you guys like it, let me know what you think so far.

* * *

I stumble in to Advanced Biology class about five minutes late, face red and panting from running here from the parking lot. Despite the fact that it's January and literally freezing outside, I'm sweating through my sweatshirt. It was barely a run, maybe I should exercise more.

The teacher looks at me disapprovingly, eyes narrowed and lips pursed like she's tasting something sour. She pushes her glasses up her nose and sighs loudly. "Kyle, this is the third Monday in a row you've been late."

"Yeah, sorry," I mumble, still trying to catch my breath. I walk quickly to my seat next to my lab partner, Wendy. She and I have most of the same classes together because we're on the same honor track. The only class we don't have together is elective. She takes Journalism; I take Intro to Economics. I'm kind of envious of her.

She looks at me, a little amused. "Late again, Kyle. What would your mother say?"

"It's _your _boyfriend's fault," I say back, keeping my voice low so the teacher doesn't hear. "He's the one that makes me late."

"Oh, sure," she replies, raising an eyebrow at me. "Blame Stan, then."

"Well, it's his fault!"

"Whatever you say, Kyle," she says in a condescending tone, patting me on the head.

I glare at her. "Why don't you give him rides on Mondays, then?"

She shrugs and smiles at me. "On the off chance that it _isn't _your fault, I don't want to be late."

I raise an eyebrow. "You're his girlfriend, aren't you supposed to make sacrifices for him? Isn't that your job or something?"

She smirks. "You're his best friend, isn't that job yours?"

I shake my head. "No, no, I distinctly remember reading that it's in girlfriend's job description."

She lets out a laugh, and the teacher glares at us. "Miss Testaburger, Mister Broflovski, while I'm sure your conversation is riveting, I'd appreciate it if you paid attention."

We both mutter half-hearted sorry's to the teacher. Wendy glances at me and smiles awkwardly, and we don't talk for the rest of the lecture, just exchange glances and sighs when someone asks a stupid question.

We both slip out of the room quickly after class to avoid the teacher, who was probably going to try to talk to us about respect and silence before letting us leave. Wendy and I walk together to English class, and pretty much the same routine happens there. We whisper to each other, the teacher gets mad, awkward silence ensues.

As we walk to lunch together later, Wendy laughs a little and looks at me, flicking her black hair from her eyes. "For honor roll kids, we're terrible students."

I shrug. "We still get the best grades in the class."

"That's precisely the issue," she replies. "We are _far _too stuck up and conceited."

I smirk at her and raise an eyebrow. "It's okay, though, because we're right."

She just laughs and shakes her head. "The teachers probably complain about us in the teacher's lounge."

"No, I'm sure they're too busy complaining about Cartman and Craig," I answer.

We get to the lunch room, and say bye to each other as we start to head off to our respective tables and groups of friends. I notice that Wendy is a little fixated on something in the distance. I don't really pay much attention, but then I see what she's looking at. It's Red, one of the cheerleaders, leaning across my friends' table, getting a little too close to Stan. She seems to be giggling and she's touching his arm. Stan seems to not mind at all- in fact, he seems to be enjoying the attention.

I walk up to them and sit down right as Red is walking away. Kenny looks really amused, and Cartman and Butters are paying no attention at all. They're too caught up in what appears to be their French homework. They ended up in that class together because Butters wants to go to Paris someday, and Cartman didn't want to learn Spanish because he "didn't want to encourage the immigrants." Whatever that means.

As I sit down, I punch Stan in the arm and give him a look. I try not to hit him too hard, but I'm not sure if it works. He jumps a little in surprise and turns sharply to look at me.

"Dude, what the fuck was that for?" he says, rubbing his arm and sounding annoyed.

"Come on, you have a girlfriend," I reply, matching his annoyance.

He looks confused. "Red and I were just talking," he mumbles. He sounds kind of like a little kid sometimes, like he's pouting or something.

Kenny stifles a laugh from across the table and leans forward. "Sure, dude. She was just pushing her tits out for fun."

Stan gets a little red at that, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't notice that."

"Sure, you didn't," Kenny replies in a mocking tone. He steals one of Stan's french fries and winks at him with a big smile. "And I didn't notice you staring at her chest."

Stan glares at him. "I wasn't staring at her chest," he says back, an edge in his voice. "And it's not like I went up to her, she came over here."

Kenny laughs and shakes his head. I just roll my eyes. Maybe I didn't see everything that was happening, and maybe I unfairly judged this situation because I care about Wendy and don't want Stan to fuck this up. All I know is that if I had a girlfriend and I loved her like Stan says he loves Wendy, I probably wouldn't have leaned in so close to Red. Maybe Stan wasn't thinking, but he probably should have been.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N- Hey, guys. Here's chapter two, I hope you like it. Review, please!

* * *

Walking out to the parking lot towards Stan's car, the first thing I see is Stan and Wendy talking. Well, not so much talking as arguing. Wendy's got her arms crossed and she's glaring, and Stan is talking and rolling his eyes. The conversation doesn't last much longer. Wendy just says something and turns away sharply, walking straight to her car and driving away.

Stan leans against his car and rubs the back of his neck and his temples. All I can gather is that she seems mad and he seems exasperated.

I feel a little weird having seen that. I'm sure I'll hear all about the fight anyway, from both of them. I always do. Stan vents to me in the car of while hanging out, Wendy vents to me in class. That's how it always is. It's kind of tiring being good friends with both of them, especially since they both want me to be on their side.

So I'll hear about this fight, I'm know I will, I just feel weird _seeing_ it. It's like seeing a teacher outside of school. You know it happens, you just don't exactly want to witness it firsthand.

I brace myself for all the complaining and walk over to Stan. "Hey, man. Ready to go?"

Stan sighed loudly and gave me a look. "Beyond ready. Couldn't you have gotten here a few minutes ago?" He pinches the bridge of his nose. "You would've saved me some trouble."

"I noticed," I say, trying to not sound annoyed. I'm not sure it worked. "You can tell me about it on the ride home."

"She's just so ridiculous, you know?" he says, getting in the drivers seat and slamming the door.

I sigh and bring my hand up to rub my forehead. I'm getting tired of this. I get in the car and he almost immediately starts ranting. I have to actively keep myself from yawning or rolling my eyes.

"I mean, it's like she expects me to not so much as _look _at another girl, right? I mean, she's all pissed just because I talked to Red today. It's so stupid, you know?" he sighs and looks at me, as though expecting a response. When he doesn't get one, he just keeps going. "I mean, she just fucking lectured me about flirting with other girls, but Red and I were just talking. Besides, it's not like Wendy even _heard _the conversation. Red's in some of my classes, you know? It could've just been about homework, but it's not like Wendy asked, she just jumped straight to assuming the worst!"

I look at him and raise an eyebrow. "Well, was it?"

He glances at me, furrowing his brows. "What?"

"The conversation between you and Red," I say, and I can almost taste the impatience in my mouth. I just hope Stan is too focused on himself to notice. "Was it just about homework?"

He hesitates and looks a little uncomfortable, gripping the steeling wheel and fidgeting a bit. "Well, no. But Wendy didn't _know _that. She just jumped to conclusions."

"She jumped to correct conclusions though, right?" I say, barely able to keep myself from sighing.

"Not exactly," he replies, sounding frustrated. "I mean, yeah, it's not like we were talking about homework, but it's not like I was flirting with her. And Red came up to me, what was I supposed to do, ignore her? Wendy's totally overreacting."

"Yeah, okay," I reply. Which is just enough agreement for Stan to start going again.

"Right? I mean, she just stops me in the parking lot, is all _we need to talk_, all annoyed, and then she just starts basically telling me I'm a bad boyfriend. It's fucked, I mean, she talks to other guys all the time, but I don't say shit, you know? I mean, you and her hang out all the time, and I've never told her not to, but the second I get a friend who's a girl, it's a huge problem!"

I shake my head and laugh. "No, no, no, don't drag me into this, okay?"

He glances at me, a weird look in his eye.

I stare at him for a moment. "Dude, you didn't compare Wendy and I being friends to Red flirting with you in the cafeteria, did you?"

"I may have," he says, chewing his lip a little. "And Red wasn't flirting with me."

"Come on, man," I say, groaning. "Why bring me into this? It's between you and Wendy."

"Well, since you're already part of the fight," he says, sounding goddamn cheerful. What a dick. "Could you talk to her for me?"

"Dude, what are you, twelve?" I say, shooting him a glare. I used to have to talk to her for him _all the time. _I thought maybe- just maybe- he'd grown past that. Evidently not.

"Come on, please? You and her are close, right?" he replies. "Just this once, I swear."

"Yeah, I've heard that before," I say, but I sigh in defeat. "I'll see what I can do."

He grins. "Thanks, man. I owe you one."

"I make no promises," I reply. "I think you overestimate how much Wendy cares about my opinion."

"It's worth a shot," he replies. "She's probably more likely to listen to you than to me anyway."

"Yeah, whatever," I say.

When we finally get to my house and he drops me off, I immediately go to my room and collapse on my bed. Other people's drama makes me tired.

I tried to get someone else to have to deal with them once. Wendy and Stan had just broken up- again- but Ike was acting out in school at that time, so I had some of my own shit going on. I told both Stan and Wendy to go to Kenny and Bebe respectively for their problems, because I couldn't help.

That idea didn't end particularly well. Bebe's never been in a relationship that lasted particularly long (our two month long relationship in middle school was the longest for her by far, I think) so she didn't have much advice to give. She was pretty much at a loss of how to help. She called me at one point in a panic to ask me what she should say, so I was basically in the same position anyway.

Kenny, on the other hand, has been in several relationships, but he was just terrible at giving advice and he had very little patience for faking sympathy. He, understandably, couldn't comfort Stan while his family was having trouble feeding themselves. He was a little too busy worrying about his little sister, so it didn't take him long to snap at Stan to quite whining and suck it up. Those two didn't speak for a month, because they are both stubborn assholes.

The next day in class, as predicted, Wendy starts venting to me almost immediately.

"Do you want to hear what Stan said to me?" she says as she sits down at the desk next to me. Today in class, we're supposed to be working on our writing projects and Wendy is my partner, so the teacher probably won't yell at us.

"I'm sure you'll tell me regardless," I reply with a half smile.

"Oh look, you're learning," she says, smirking at me. "Well, I was just asking him to maybe not flirt with other girls right in front of my face, and he just gets all defensive, asking if he's just never supposed to talk to other girls at all. And then before I can even say anything else, he immediately says that well, _he's _never said anything about you and I being friends, so I should just back off and get off my high horse. Can you believe it?"

I sigh. Fucking Stan. "No, I really can't."

"I mean, I just want some consideration, you know?" She looks at me, and it's clear she wants me to agree with her. "I don't think I'm overreacting. All I did was ask him not to flirt with Red."

I silently curse Stan before I do what I promised to do. "Well, how do you know he was flirting?"

She raises an eyebrow at me. "Ky, you were there, their faces we barely inches apart. You saw what I saw."

I shrug. "I guess, but I mean, Red and Stan are in a few classes together. They could've just been talking about that."

She sighs and starts fiddling with her bracelet. "I guess so. I don't know. It just didn't look like that to me."

"You never know, though," I point out, secretly hoping she's not really listening to me.

"You're right." She looks at her hands as she picks at her fingernails. "Maybe I did overreact. I should probably apologize to Stan."

I feel suddenly kind of guilty. I didn't really want to talk to her for Stan in the first place. I just kind of thought she wasn't going to actually pay attention to what I was saying. And she's right, Stan and Red _were _flirting. I'm not in place to say whether she was overreacting or not, but she was right at least. And now I've convinced her that she wasn't. Because my best friend is a tool and I'm a pushover.

"Oh, did you hear?" she says suddenly. "Annie's throwing a party this Friday."

"Annie?" I repeat, frowning a little. Annie is such an innocent girl and she keeps to herself mostly. "You sure? That'd be like Butters throwing a party."

She laughs. "Yeah, I know, I was confused, too. I think someone must have pushed her into it when they found out her parents were leaving for the weekend."

"My money would be on Bebe," I reply, chuckling. Our class, as a whole, was terrible at throwing parties. Ever since Craig's house was trashed and Token's parents caught us, no one has wanted it to be their house. Bebe was particularly upset about this.

"Yeah, mine too," she replies, smiling at me. I can't help but notice that her smile is really pretty. It reaches the corners of her bright eyes and lights up her whole face. I realize after a moment that I'm staring at her mouth. Which is weird. "So are you going to go?"

I snap out of it and smile back. "Yeah, now that I know about it, I think so."

"Yeah, me too. Should be interesting." She gives me a look. "I can't wait to see you drunk."

I fake a gasp. "I would never!"

"Well, of course not," she replies, raising an eyebrow. "Your mother would disapprove."

"Hey!" I protest, pushing her shoulder softly. "Uncalled for."

She just shrugs. "Yeah, well."

We continue talking about the party, and I get progressively more excited. I never get to go to parties, it should be fun. By the time lunch comes around, I'm planning out what to wear. I walk over to the table where Stan, Kenny, Cartman, and Butters are.

Kenny seems equally thrilled, because the second I sit down, he blurts out- "Annie's throwing a party!"

I just laugh. "Yeah, man, I heard."

Stan looks over at me, smiling a little. It doesn't look all that genuine though. "So get this, dude, Wendy freaking apologized to me."

I raise my eyebrows. "Well, you're welcome then."

"Yeah, it was weird, she just comes up to me and says she shouldn't have jumped to conclusions." He frowns, poking at his food. "That girl doesn't trust me at all, though."

"In her defense, you _were _flirting. And I'm not lying to her for you again," I reply, rolling my eyes. Stan always manages to be unhappy about something. I think if he's genuinely happy for too long, his emo side gets bored.

"But like, she's my girlfriend, you know?" He shakes his head. "I'm just not sure how long this relationship is going to last. I might have to break it off."

"Oh my god, Kyle, Wendy and Stan might break up, what a tragedy!" Kenny says dramatically leaning in toward me. Then he drops the act and grins at me. "I'll bet you ten bucks they get back together within the month."

I smirk back. "I'll bet you fifteen that they get back together within a week."

"Deal!" Kenny replies enthusiastically, shaking my hand.

Stan shoots us both glares. "Glad you guys care so much about my feelings."

"Maybe we'd care more if you didn't have so many feelings, pussy," Cartman interjects.

"Yeah, you know, it's hard to keep track," Kenny adds, laughing.

Stan glares viciously at them both and throws a piece of his bread at them. Kenny promptly catches it and eats it.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N- Sorry it's been a while, guys! Here's the new chapter, let me know what you think.

* * *

The rest of the week is normal, uneventful. Wendy seems a little sad, which makes me feel guilty. Stan was pretty quiet all week, which is unusual but I didn't pry because frankly, I'm never sure I want to know with him.

Come Friday night, I'm all ready for the party and knocking on his door. He practically throws the door open, huge smile on his face. "Are you ready for the party?" he almost yells enthusiastically.

I chuckle, a little uncomfortably. "Yeah, are you?"

"No, not yet," he says, his voice significantly calmer. "Wanna come in? I just have a few things left I need to do."

"Sure," I reply with a sigh. Of fucking course he isn't ready yet. Eight thirty doesn't really mean eight thirty to him. It's always just a suggestion to him. I'm never late for anything- unless I'm going with him. Fucking asshole.

"I swear, it won't take long," he says as I come in, probably sensing my annoyance.

"You always say that," I answer, rolling my eyes.

"I mean it this time!" he says defensively, but he's grinning.

"Yeah, you always say that, too," I reply with an eyebrow raised.

He shrugs and waves me off. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. You're scarily punctual anyway. You're _supposed _to be late for a party."

"I'm not sure that's true," I respond.

As we get into his room, I hesitate in the doorway. His room looks different, almost bare. Posters are taken off the wall, a bunch of knick knacks and books have been taken off his shelves… It looks like he'd started packing up or something.

"Whoa," I say, looking around the room. "What happened in here?"

He shrugs nonchalantly. "I just thought I needed to put some things away, change up my room a bit, you know?"

I stare at him. "You've never done that. Not in the decade and a half that I've known you, you haven't once changed up your room."

He glances over at me, looking a little awkward. "I needed to get rid of the things that reminded me of Wendy."

I sigh. "Seriously?" I pinch the bridge of my nose. Of fucking course.

"Yeah, I broke up with her," he says with a sad sigh. "For real this time."

"Yeah, sure you did. I totally believe you." I sit down at his desk chair and spin in it a little absentmindedly.

"No, really," he says, looking at me. "It's over this time. I'm sick of her trying to tell me what to do all the time. I'm sick of her not trusting me, acting like I'm always in the wrong."

"Yeah, whatever," I say.

He rolls his eyes at me and then starts trying to put gel in his hair, staring intently at the mirror. This goes on for about half an hour, until he decides he has _just _the right amount of organized messiness in his hair and then we leave. Half an hour late to the party.

We get there and people are already drunk. Namely, Kenny and Bebe. They're right in the doorway, laughing and talking, Kenny's arm thrown around her. They're probably thrilled about the party and the ability to be this drunk.

"Stan! Kyle!" Kenny says as we walk in, grinning and stumbling.

"Oh my god, guys, hi!" Bebe says, hugging both of us, her face a little pink and her smile wide.

"Hey, Bebe," Stan says awkwardly, leaning away from her.

"No hard feelings, alright?" she says, still grinning. He nods and tried to smile, but he clearly feels weird, so I pull him away toward the keg, where Annie is standing, biting her fingernails.

"Hey, guys," she says quietly as we get there, eyes darting around the room.

"Hey, Annie," I reply. "Doing okay there?"

She nods rapidly. "Mhmm. Fine."

I shrug it off and grab beers for me and Stan, muttering thanks and bye to her as we walk over to Butters.

He smiles as we walk over. "Hey, fellas!" he says and he hiccups like a cartoon alcoholic. The he stumbles to the side and giggles.

Stan laughs. "Hey, man, how're you feeling?"

Butters frowns. "A little funny. I think Clyde put too much alcohol in this." He stares into his cup and sways a little.

"You really shouldn't take anything from Clyde," Stan replies, patting Butters on the shoulder. "He has lost the ability to tell how much alcohol is in anything."

"I guess," Butters mumbles, looking around absently.

At that moment, Token and Craig stumble into the room and start yelling about starting up a drinking game and how everyone needs to take shots immediately.

"On that note," I mutter to Stan as I start to try to sneak out.

He nods. "I'll text you when it's over or something."

I chuckle, not really believing him. He loves drinking games and shots, but it's really not my thing. I sneak upstairs and duck into one of the bedrooms, but I stop short. There's a girl hunched over on the bed and I think she's crying.

"Oh- uh, sorry, I'll just-" I start.

"Kyle?" the girl sniffles, turning around.

"Wendy?" I reply tentatively, walking into the room.

She quickly wipes her face and smiles, but her eyes are still wet. "Hey, why aren't you downstairs?"

I sit down next to her and shrug. "It turns out that I really don't like parties all that much. What about you?"

She shakes her head. "Bebe made me come. I didn't want to." She lets out a short laugh. "And now she's drunk with Kenny down there. It's not like she needed me here or anything."

"Quality friend, that one," I reply.

She chuckles. Then she looks over at me, concern on her face. "So if you're here…"

I nod. "He is, too."

"Great," she says. "My last hope. I guess you've heard all about it?"

"Not really," I reply. "He just told me _that _it happened."

"Of course," she mumbles, wiping her cheeks again.

"Are you okay?" I ask, putting my hand on her shoulder, rubbing my thumb up and down.

She nods. "I'm great." Her voice cracks and the tears start streaming down her face.

"Sure seems like it," I say, putting my arm around her and pulling her towards me. Her head ends up leaning against my shoulder.

"Kyle?" she says softly after a few moments of silence.

"Wendy," I answer.

"Will this mean we can't be friends?" she says, and her tone is close to heartbreaking.

"Oh, sweetheart, of course not," I say.

She looks up at me, eyes huge and bluer than usual. We sit like that for a little while, eyes locked, complete silence. Then Wendy leans over and kisses me on the lips.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N- Sorry this chapter has taken a while! I'll try to update more frequently. Please let me know what you think!

* * *

I freeze. This isn't exactly what I expected. I guess I panic, and I don't know what to do, so I end up kissing her back. Which is perfectly logical and reasonable- oh wait, no it isn't.

She wraps her arms around my neck and I wrap my arms around her waist. She's pressing into me and I feel warm and then all of a sudden we're lying on the bed and she's on top of me. I'm getting out of breath and she's running her hands through my hair.

Before I'm really aware of what's happening, her hands are all over me. We roll, our lips still connected, and she pulls me on top of her. Her hands slide up my shirt, and she's tracing my shoulder blades and my spine. I can feel my blood pulsing hard as she grabs the back of my shirt and starts to pull it over my head.

I'm completely out of breath and completely panicking and I pull away very abruptly, moving a full three feet away from her and sitting upright on the bed. "Wendy," I start, but I'm so out of breath I'm having trouble talking. I feel the bed move and glance to see her sitting up next to me.

"I'm sorry," she says, so softly I almost miss it.

"No, don't be, it's fine," I reply, though it isn't fine, not really.

I see her reach up and gently touch her fingers to her lips out of the corner of my eye. "Okay," she replies, sounding a little more certain of herself. "Then I'm not sorry at all."

I turn to her, frowning a little. I'm so confused. "What about Stan?"

She rolls her eyes and looks away from me. "What about him?"

"He's my best friend," I reply, my tone incredulous. What does she mean _what about him_.

"He's not mine," she says with a small, cold chuckle.

"Wendy, come on," I say.

She sighs and looks back at me. "He broke up with me. Why should I care about how he'd feel about this?"

I shake my head and look away. "You guys will get back together. You always do."

"Not this time," she insists and she clenches her hands together.

"Well, you can't use me to get back at him. That's not fair." I try to say it emphatically, but my voice falters at the end.

"It's not-" she starts. She leans over and puts her head in her hands. Her shoulders start to shake, and I tell myself I shouldn't comfort her.

But I can't do that. She's my friend and she's sad, so I put my arms around her again and squeeze her close to me. This time she just cries into my chest for a little while and we sit there without moving or talking.

I'm not sure how long we sit like that, but then my phone buzzes and I have to pull away.

It's from Stan.

_dude, shots r ovver. saf to come doen _

I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. He's clearly so drunk and I really don't want to deal with it.

At this point, my shirt is covered in smudges of makeup and eyeliner. Wendy's wiping the black-stained saltwater from her cheeks and sniffing a little. I really don't want to go downstairs. I want to stay with her. But I don't want to be suspicious.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

She nods and gives me a weak smile. "I'll be fine," she says, her voice cracking a little. It breaks my heart to hear.

"Um, I don't want to leave you here like this, but…"

She waves me off. "I understand. The party calls. Wouldn't want anyone to think we were doing anything up here in this bedroom," she says, and I notice a hint of flirtation in her tone.

I roll my eyes but I smile. I stand up, dreading going downstairs, and walk toward the door.

"Wait," Wendy calls, her demeanor entirely different. "Can you come back up here after?" She smiles, a small, cute, shy smile. "I'm going to be hiding up here. I might get lonely."

And I'm immediately tempted to just stay up here with her until the party ends. I nod. "I'll see what I can do."

I walk out of the room and close the door behind me. I lean against the door and sigh, exasperated and confused and unsure. I touch my lips with my fingertips. None of this really feels real. _Fuck, Kyle, what have you gotten yourself into?_

I walk downstairs and am immediately greeted by Heidi. "Kyle!" she says in an exaggerated tone, throwing her arms around me. "Where have you been hiding?"

It takes her a second longer than it should to let go of me and I laugh uncomfortably. "Away from the people taking shots," I reply. I scan the room and when I see Kenny and Bebe, I immediately rush over to them. They're leaning against the wall, faces close together, talking animatedly.

"Hey, guys," I say, desperate for a distraction.

Bebe flashes a huge smile. "Hey!" she almost yells. "Isn't it great to be at a party?"

I shrug. "I can think of things I'd rather be doing."

Kenny nudges Bebe and leans in, pretending to whisper in her ear, but grinning at me. "Kyle is above alcohol and partying."

I roll my eyes. "Excuse me for not enjoying watching drunk people grind on each other."

"You could actually drink, you know," he replies with a smirk. "I promise, your mom won't find out."

I shake my head and laugh. "Someone has to keep you all from hurting yourselves."

"What a saint!" Bebe jokes, gently touching my arm. "Tell me, is it hard to be this selfless?"

"Oh, it's all worth it in the end, when I get to feed my superiority complex," I joke back. I like hanging out with these two when they're drunk because they're really not that different. Since they're already very honest, open people, there aren't very many surprises with them.

"Hey, guys, on the subject of drunk people grinding on each other," Kenny says, a little more seriously, pointing toward the center of the room.

And there are two people, lips locked, hands all over each other, and I immediately recognize them as Stan and Red.

Bebe scoffs. "Well, he moves fast." She sounds a little annoyed.

I, on the other hand, am furious. "You have got to be kidding me," I say sharply, walking straight at them.

"Kyle, wait-" I hear Kenny say, but I ignore him.

I grab Stan by the arm and roughly pull him away toward the door to the kitchen.

"What the fuck-" he says, but I'm not listening. I practically shove him into the kitchen and walk in behind him. Carmen, Butters, and Tweek are all in here, leaning against the counter with a bottle of gin. They fall silent when I enter the room.

"You three- out," I say emphatically, making it very clear I'm not messing around.

Tweek and Butters scurry out of the room quickly, but Cartman crosses his arms. "You can't tell me what to do."

I shoot him a glare. "Cartman, I'm not kidding, get out."

"Fine, but just because I want to," he huffs, and he walks out slowly, avoiding getting too close to me.

Stan sighs. He sways a little from side to side, obviously incredibly drunk. "What do you want Kyle? I was _busy."_

"Oh, I saw that," I snap. "What the hell is wrong with you, Stan?"

"What?" he whines. "It's a party! I'm allowed to have fun, aren't I?"

"I don't even know where to start. You're such an asshole, Stan. You break up with Wendy after she forgives you for flirting and now you're just making out with Red _on the same day you dump Wendy."_

Stan rolls his eyes. "You don't know what it's like, alright? I like Red, she's not so goddamn uptight."

My heart is pounding and my hands are shaking, I'm so pissed off. I can barely form sentences at this point. I push Stan into the wall and give him my best death glare. "Wendy deserves so much better than you," I hiss, and then I turn away and walk out, slamming the door behind me.

I head straight for the stairs and avoid anyone who looks like they might want to talk to me. I walk up to the room where Wendy is. I'm still pretty angry and I accidentally slam the door behind me, making her jump.

"Oh, Kyle," she says softly. "You surprised me."

"Let's get out of here," I say. "There's no point in staying. If we leave fast enough, no one will notice."

She shakes her head. "I don't want to go home."

"We don't have to go home," I reply. "But let's leave this party. We can go to Stark's Pond or something. Okay?"

I reach out my hand to her and help her up. She smiles warmly at me. "Okay."


	5. Chapter 5

A/N- Thanks to the person who requested this story. I didn't used to ship Kyle and Wendy, but now I sure do. Hope you all like the chapter, let me know what you think!

* * *

Wendy and I walk down the stairs quietly, careful to not draw any attention to ourselves. I try to position myself in between her and the crowd, partially to protect her from any excited drunk people and partially to block her from seeing Stan, in case he's back at it again.

The second we get outside, I feel like I can breathe again. I bring my hands to my face, and I feel like crying but I'm just too angry to. I'm not sure why, I just feel overwhelmed and frustrated and I can't handle all these emotions in the same night. People need to space out their drama so I can deal with it.

"You okay?" Wendy asks, her voice soft and almost timid. It barely sounds like her, with her usual snarky, confident tone.

"I'm fine," I say curtly. I turn and force a smile. "Just one of those days, I guess."

She looks down at her feet. "Yeah." She runs her fingers through her hair, and I think I see her lip quiver. "Listen, I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have kissed you. Please don't be mad."

"Oh, honey," I say, putting my arm around her and leading her away from the house. "I'm not mad at you. It's okay, really."

"Are you sure?" she asks, looking at me, her eyes seeming a little wet.

I nod. "Of course," I say. I grin at her and link arms. "Now off to Starks Pond we go."

Her face brightened and she half-skipped alongside with me and hummed the song from the Wizard of Oz.

I groan. "I hate that movie."

She laughs. "What, how can you hate the Wizard of Oz? That's ridiculous."

"No, you know what's ridiculous? Those creepy-ass flying monkey things, those are ridiculous," I respond.

She nudges me softly in the ribs. "Aw, Ky, are you afraid of the flying monkeys?"

"What?" I say, trying to sound incredulous. "Why would you even suggest that? And also yes, a little bit."

"You need to just face your fears head on, Ky," she responds, trying to keep her face straight. "You can't just go through life afraid."

"Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of flying monkeys around for me to fight," I respond.

"I do see your point," she replies. "Don't worry, if any happen to pass by, I'll protect you."

I unlink our arms and put my arm around her shoulder again. "That's sweet. I feel so safe."

I'm not sure, I might be imagining this, but I think I feel her lean into me a little. Her skin feels cold so I hold her a little tighter.

She lets out a little sigh. "I hate this time of year."

"You hate spring?" I say, almost with a laugh. "No one hates spring."

"I do," she responds thoughtfully. "It's barely a season."

"Please, explain your reasoning. Show your sources," I reply.

She sighs. "It's the end of winter, right? Everyone is waiting for it to be warm, and we're all expecting flowers and sunshine. But it's still cold, so people dress like it isn't and everyone is just kind of miserable. It's just the transition period between winter and summer."

"Well, couldn't the same be said about fall?" I ask. "That it's just the transition between summer and winter?"

She shoots me a look. I can't help but notice that her hair is falling in front of her face and I get the urge to push it behind her ear. "No, autumn has a feeling of its own. It has all the red and orange leaves and the crisp air. It has a character all on its own, separate from winter and summer."

"Well, spring has flowers, new life. Baby birds and all that," I reply.

She shakes her head. "All seasons have their own flowers. Spring just has rain and mud and disappointment."

I laugh. "Well, I love spring. The snow is melting, the air is warmer. There are tulips. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree."

She stifles a laugh and raises an eyebrow at me. "Tulips?"

I shrug. "They're pretty and I'm very secure with my masculinity."

She smiles and nods. "That's fair."

As we get to the pond, I'm not sure what to do. I feel like I should take my arm off from around her shoulders, but I don't want to. She doesn't make a move to step away from me either.

We end up just standing in front of the pond, staring at the dark water. It's barely moving. It looks like it could be tar until my eyes adjust to the darkness without street lamps and I see the reflection of the stars. It's beautiful, and she's beautiful, and the night air is cool, and I, as always, have no idea what to do.

"Ky?" she says. It sounds like she's trying to keep her voice low, but the world around us is so asleep and silent, that it almost sounds like she's echoing.

"Yeah?" I reply, not taking my eyes off the water.

"What am I supposed to do without him?" she says, and I know who she's talking about, and it feels like a stab in my chest. Because I know him, and I saw him, and he's not hurting like she is.

"Sweetheart, you'll be fine," I whisper, and I hug her so her face is buried in my chest. I can feel her shoulders shaking and I think I hear a small sob. "You know, I always thought you could do better."

She lets out a weak, muffled laugh. "Don't lie, he's your best friend," she says.

I sigh. "Yeah, but he still needs to grow up a lot before he deserves a girl like you."

She doesn't answer, and I don't say anything else, and it feels like the world has stopped. We stay like that for a long time. I don't know who pulled away first.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N- Hey, sorry it's been a while, but here's the new chapter. The next one should be out soon. Please let me know what you think!

* * *

Come Monday, I am begrudgingly driving to Stan's house to pick him up. Because it's a Monday and I always drive him to school on Mondays. We haven't talked all weekend, and he's presumably a little pissed at me for shoving him and yelling at him, which I guess is fair. And I'm still pissed at him for making out with Red, and probably going home with her, and probably itching to tell me all about it.

That thought occurs to me right as I pull up to his house and I have half a mind to leave because of how much I don't want to hear about his _super awesome weekend with Red the down-to-earth cheerleader. _He faced zero consequences from how he treated Wendy, because I faced them for him. Sometimes, I get really sick of cleaning up his messes.

Five minutes late, as per usual, he struts outside with a cold look on his face. Great. He can be pissed, see if I care. Fuck that guy.

He gets in the car, slams the door and says, " I wasn't sure if you were coming."

"Don't be ridiculous," I reply.

I start driving and he crosses his arms. My shoulder blade starts to sting and the image of Wendy with her hand up my shirt, me on top of her, flashes through my mind.

I grip the steering wheel. _Don't feel guilty. She kissed you. He had dumped her. _

Logically, I know those things. And yet, I kissed my best friend's on and off girlfriend at a party. And then I yelled at him and shoved him.

I sigh loudly because I hate myself a little for what I know I have to say. "I'm sorry," I say, and not a single person in the world would believe that I meant it.

"Don't bother," he replies, smiling at me like he wasn't just giving the cold shoulder. I stand correcting. One idiot on this planet believed that I meant it.

I give him a tense smile back, and I know, I just know, what he's about to say.

"So guess what happened with me and Red this weekend!" Yep, there it is.

"Abducted by aliens," I reply.

"After the party, we went back to my place. We slept together. We didn't even have sex, dude, we just slept next to each other," he says, and his voice is all soft and sweet. "I think something might really happen between us, you know?"

"Sure," I say passively, resisting the urge to hit him.

"I don't know, I just really like this girl. We have serious chemistry, you know?"

Without meaning to, my mind goes straight to the moment when Wendy kissed me, and then when she was on top of me. And then when she cried into my shoulder and now my chest hurts. "Not really," I answer.

"Come on, you've had a few girlfriends, right? Wasn't it like that with Heidi?"

I shake my head. "No, that girl just liked me too much for her own good."

He laughs. "You're heartless, you know that?"

_At least I don't dump amazing girls because I want to chase after a cheerleader for a while. At least I don't hurt people who sure as hell don't deserve it. _I shrug. "I guess I'm just not much of a romantic."

We pull up to the school, finally, because this drive has felt way longer than any other. And we're late, so I run to Advanced Bio, panting and sweating. I get there seconds before the teacher does though, so I'm safe.

Trying my best to look like I didn't run here, I notice that Wendy is not in the seat next to me.

"Sorry I was a tad late, class," the teacher sighs. It seems she doesn't want to be here any more than anyone else. "I had to print and photocopy your pop quizzes."

As she says that, Wendy slips into the classroom with her head down, looking exhausted.

"Right in the nick of time, my dear, " the teacher says, shooting Wendy a glare. "Thirty seconds more and you wouldn't have been allowed to take the quiz."

She passes out the quiz, I breeze through the questions without much issue, and then I lie my head on the desk as I wait for the rest of the class to finish up. When I hear her call pencils down, pass the quizzes to the front, I finally pull myself back up and notice Wendy staring at me.

"Did you just fall asleep as the whole class suffered?" she says with fake shock, putting her hand to her chest.

"What can I say, I'm cold-hearted," I laugh back. This feels surprisingly normal. That's good.

"How dare you ignore the desperate cries of everyone," she says, shaking her head. "Truly, no empathy."

I shrug. "Can't say I feel too bad about it," I reply, shooting her a grin.

She smiles back and I think I catch her eyes linger on my lips. I'm probably imagining it.

The rest of the class goes by without anything notable, and then so does the next one. Wendy and I walk to lunch together, but she splits away from me to greet a friend right before the door. I get the idea she does it on purpose to avoid walking into the cafeteria with me, probably at the risk of seeing Stan.

I walk over to the usual table, only Stan and Kenny there. It seems Butters and Cartman went off campus for lunch, as they do sometimes after a French test.

Kenny leans forward as I sit down. "So you completely vanished from the party," he says instead of hello.

I laugh, a little uncomfortable. "I guess so. As always, parties aren't really my thing."

"But we didn't have a token sober person!" he complains, frowning.

"I'm sure you all lived," I say, gesturing to the room as a whole.

He shakes his head. "We could've died without your guidance, Kyle."

I snort. "I'll never do it again," I promise.

"You better not," he says, pointing at me. Then he turns his attention to Stan. "So I guess you and Red are _just friends _and were _totally not flirting, _right?"

"Shut up," Stan replies, but his smile is huge. He looks so happy, it makes me mad.

"Did you hear? Heidi tried to make a move on Kyle and he blew her off." Kenny directs this piece of gossip at Stan, but I snap my head toward him.

"What?" I say, confused.

"Oh yeah, it was the petty drama of the night," Kenny says, smiling. He takes too much joy in knowing more about the gossip. "She tried to come onto you, but before she could, you ran away. And then like five minutes later, you'd left the party, and barely anyone even saw you. Rumor has it you left to avoid Heidi."

I almost burst into laughter about how ridiculous this is. Heidi couldn't have been farther from my mind, considering I had just kissed my best friend's ex and then almost punched him out. Luckily, I managed to keep a straight face and I just shrugged. "Don't believe everything you hear."

Suddenly, Stan is out of his seat. "Gotta go, I'll see you guys later," he says as fast as he can manage. And then he walks straight toward the pretty redhead that just walked into the room. And I bite the inside of my cheek.

Kenny rolls his eyes. "Can you believe that guy?"

I shake my head. "Almost never."

"At least he's at the stage where he's talking to her and not us," he says with a grin.

I chuckle and go to take a drink of my water. "At least there's that."

"So you left with Wendy," Kenny says casually. "What's that about?"

I nearly choke on the water. "Sorry?" I say, sputtering a little.

"Yeah, I saw you, and yeah, I was covering for you with that bullshit about Heidi," he says, rolling his eyes impatiently. Then he leans forward. "So? Why'd you leave with Wendy?"

"Because I was comforting her," I sigh. "I was fixing Stan's mistakes, as always."

Kenny raises an eyebrow at me, looking wholly unconvinced. But he doesn't press the matter and just starts telling me about how drunk everyone was, and how he's pretty sure that Butters and Cartman and Tweek had a threeway.

The rest of the day goes by slowly and I'm exhausted by the time I walk out to the parking lot to meet Stan.

I see him leaning against my car and immediately feel ten times more tired. He's fucking sulking. "Hey, Stan," I say, trying to sound cheerful.

"Hey," he replies, sounding like there is a literal black storm cloud above him head.

We start driving and I am desperately trying to pretend he's not pouting and waiting to ask what's wrong. But I can't, because he sighs sadly and stares at me until I ask.

"So is something wrong?" I ask.

"Yeah," he says, looking at the window like he's in a music video. "Red was all weird and distant when I went to talk to her."

I roll my eyes without meaning to, but luckily he's paying no attention.

"I don't know, maybe I got too ahead of myself?"

"Yeah, maybe," I say.

"I just really thought she and I had a connection," he adds quickly. "It really seemed like we did."

"You were both drunk," I say, maybe a little to curtly. "How can you be sure?"

He sighs. "I guess you're right. I don't know. Maybe I'll try to ask her out on a real date."

I don't answer because I don't want to hear anything else about this and he doesn't continue. Thank god, because I'm about to snap at him and that doesn't seem like it would be productive. I drop him off and head home, and then ignore all his texts for the rest of the night. I just can't deal with all this right now.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N- I kind of have a plan for the rest of the story, so the remaining chapters should come out pretty consistently, or so I hope. Please let me know what you think! I'm really enjoying writing this one

* * *

I manage to avoid too many one on one conversations with Stan for the rest of the week by offering Kenny rides. And by offering him rides, I mean I full on begged him to come with us so I wouldn't have to hear about Stan and Red. Kenny eventually relented, albeit very unenthusiastically.

This morning, Kenny was running late. Later than Stan, who had also been running late.

Stan stares at his watch and groans. "Can we just go? We're going to be so late."

"You have no idea how many times I've been tempted to leave you behind because you were taking too long," I reply, surprisingly level-headed considering how neurotic about being on time I usually am.

"Come on, I've never been this bad," he says, shooting me a look.

I shrug. "If we add up all of the total minutes I've been late because of you, Kenny's tardiness looks like nothing."

"Well, that's just not a fair comparison," Stan replies, almost sounding like he's pouting.

I laugh. "It's not a big deal, Stan. In another couple minutes, I'll just go knock on the door."

"Have I gotten the chance to tell you about Red?" he blurts out as though he's been holding back too long.

And here is goes. I suppress a sigh. "I don't believe so," I say, desperately trying to keep my voice and expression neutral as I stare straight ahead.

"I think she maybe just thought of me as a hookup," Stan says.

And his voice sounds sad, and I can't keep up the cold act. "I'm sorry, dude."

He sighs and runs his fingers through his hair. "It just sucks, you know? I really thought she liked me."

"Yeah, I know."

"Like, all the flirting and talking and kissing meant nothing to her. I really thought there was a connection. I felt something, right? Like how it was with Wendy, at the beginning, you know?"

My sympathy dwindled. How dare he compare Wendy to Red. "I guess."

"I even heard that she had a bet going with her friends, about whether she could get me to have sex with her," he adds, furrowing his brow. "She lost, I guess."

"That sucks," I say. I can't deal with this. His self-pity really gets on my nerves. How am I supposed to feel sorry for him after the way he treated Wendy? I don't want to say it, but I feel like this is karma. "I'm going to go see what's taking Kenny so long."

"Wait," he says suddenly, grabbing my arm. "Do you think I might be able to get Wendy back? Do you think she would give me another chance?"

I yank my arm away and can barely keep from screaming. "Doesn't she always?"

"Yeah, I guess, but…" He gives me this pitiful look and a slightly embarrassed smile. "Maybe you could put in a good word for me?"

I want to punch him. "Maybe," I say quickly before walking away. I pound a little too hard on Kenny's door.

I hear a string a swear words and some crashing from inside before Kenny opens the door, looking a little startled. "Dude!" he says, glaring at me.

"We're gonna be late," I reply.

He looks confused fora brief moment before realization sets it. It's possible that he just woke up from the knock on the door. He runs back inside, leaving me on the porch. It only takes about ten seconds before he has changed clothes and is back out here with his backpack.

"Sorry, dude," he says, out of breath.

"Please don't leave me alone with him again," I say, and we both hurry to the car.

"About time," Stan says.

Kenny shoots him a look. "I overslept," he replies curtly.

"Seems like that happens a lot," Stan shoots back.

"You'd oversleep too, if you had to do everything I do," Kenny retorts, his voice cold.

Stan doesn't say anything after that, but I can tell he's still annoyed. But it's not like he can argue. We both know what Kenny has to go through all the time, basically trying to raise his little sister. To be honest, a lot of people are surprised that Kenny hasn't dropped out of school so he can work and rent a place for him and Karen.

We drove the rest of the way in silence, getting to school about ten minutes after class started. Stan practically ran to the door of the school before I'd even gotten my bag out.

"You know, we're pretty late," Kenny says, grinning.

"I'm aware," I reply, grinning back.

"It might even not be worth it to go to first period at this point."

"You could make that argument."

"Coffee?" he says, smiling so big it looks like his cheeks hurt.

"Coffee," I confirm, jumping back in the car.

"So why was he so terrible this time?" Kenny asks as we drive downtown.

I groan. "He wants to get back with Wendy."

Kenny just bursts out laughing.

"That's not even the worst part!" I say, laughing a little, too. "He wants _me_ to talk to her for him."

"That's ridiculous," he laughs.

I shake my head. "I love the guy, but I don't know what to do with him."

"Yeah, he needs to grow up," Kenny says, his voice getting a little more serious.

"I'm not going to do it," I say, turning to him.

Kenny smiles. "Of course you won't. It's stupid that he asked."

We didn't say anything else about it. When we got to the coffee shop, we run into Craig, who was also skipping. The three of us got our coffee and hung out until second period, talking about nothing in particular.

"So not to be a buzzkill," I say, checking the time. "But if we don't leave now, we'll miss second period, too."

"We could just really commit to skipping," Kenny says, grinning. "Miss the rest of the day."

"The rest of the week," Craig chimes in.

"The rest of the month!" Kenny says excitedly.

"The rest of the year," I say, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, that's just ridiculous," Craig replies in his usual monotone. "Don't be such a slacker, Kyle."

"Of course," I say sarcastically, laughing a little. "I went too far."

Craig nods seriously. "I worry about your lack of dedication to school, Kyle." He flashes a smile as he gets up, waving goodbye as he walks out.

"Back to it, I guess," Kenny sighs.

We head back to school mostly in silence, and I was just thinking about Wendy. Was what I told Stan right? Would she always go back to him if he asked? I hoped not. Because she's my friend, and she deserves better than him. And Stan needs to learn how to be alone. He seems to always need a girlfriend. He can't keep playing with Wendy's feelings like this. I don't care that Red hurt him, he brought that on himself.

As we pull up to the school, Kenny groans and leans back in his seat briefly. "I so don't want to go to class."

"Me neither," I reply as I grab my bag and walk toward the door with him.

We say a quick goodbye when we get inside the building and I weave through the crowds to get to class.

Wendy gives me a look as I slip into the seat next to her. "Where were you last period?"

"What are you talking about?" I say, looking confused and a little hurt. "I was right next to you. Am I that forgettable?"

"Evidently," she replied with a laugh. "Seriously though, why'd you skip?"

"Coffee with Kenny," I say. "How was class?"

"Way boring without you," she says, nudging me. "You can't abandon me like that."

I feel my face get a little hot and I give an uncomfortable laugh. "Alright, I'll never do it again, I promise."

"You better not," Wendy says, grinning at me. "So we have a test next week. Feel like coming over to study this weekend?"

I sigh. "Studying. Yeah, sure."

"Hey, it'll be fun. We can take a shot after every chapter we review," she suggests, leaning in to say it softly.

"Now that does sound fun," I say, grinning. Although, to be honest, the idea of getting drunk with Wendy terrifies me.

The rest of the day goes by quickly, and I barely see Stan. He's not around at lunch, which is odd since he has no car here to eat lunch off campus. Then he texts me at the end of the day saying he found another ride home, so it's just me and Kenny. Stan's absence is a welcome relief. I don't know if I could handle him telling me anything more about how he misses Wendy.


End file.
